Monday, July 22, 2013

Beyoncé and Jay-Z returned from their trip to Cuba
just as I came to the island to co-facilitate a People-to-People delegation on sustainable
agriculture. Our group of famers, environmentalists and educators visited
cooperatives, small family-run farms, and permaculture projects, amongst many
other places. I saw real connections between people from both countries
concerned about global warming and finding ways to mitigate the environmental
crisis we’re all facing.

But the only thing that my friends and family had
heard about Cuba in the U.S. during that time was the mega-stars’ supposed honey
moon. Since then I’ve worked with another three amazing delegations.

When the hype about Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s trip to
Cuba seemed to have died down, Republicans on the House Appropriations subcommittee
on Financial Services and General Government kicked it back into the spotlight
through what critics are calling the “Beyoncé and Jay-Z Bill.” They are trying
to include language in the 2014 Financial Services bill that would eliminate
educational exchanges that are not “for-credit” or pursuant of a degree,
basically ending People to People licenses, which is how Beyoncé and Jay-Z
traveled legally to Cuba last April. Proponents of eliminating People to People
travel say that it’s not really educational and just disguised tourism, which
puts cash into the pockets of the Castro regime. While there is a long
legislative road ahead to include this language in a final bill of both the
House and the Senate, if they win this political game, we’ll be taking another
step backwards in our relations with the Cuban people and denying thousands of
U.S. citizens the ability to learn about our neighbors just 90 miles from our
shore.

Witness for Peace is one of the organizations with
the privilege to facilitate these exchanges between Cubans and Americans. The
story of Witness for Peace’s relation with Cuba begins in Nicaragua almost 30 years
ago. In 1984 during the U.S. backed Contra War, a group of Witness for Peace
members went out in a fishing boat to face a U.S. Navy frigate that had entered
Nicaraguan waters in order to show them that if they attacked Nicaragua, they would
also be attacking U.S. citizens. On the shore another group held a vigil in a
church while the U.S. ship was in Nicaraguan territory, amongst them, Reverend
Raúl Suarez, who went on to found the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in
Havana. Upon their return to shore he said, "Where would Cuba be today if
there had been a Witness for Peace at the time of the Bay of Pigs
invasion?" Reverend Suarez
continued, "When is WFP going to start a presence in Cuba?"

The MLK Center sprang out of the Marianao Baptist
Church officially in 1987 as an ecumenical organization seeking to build peace
and justice on a community, national, and international level. It wasn’t until 1999
after the war in Nicaragua had ended and Witness for Peace broadened its
mission to other parts of Latin America that Witness for Peace partnered with
the MLK Center to bring its first delegations to the island. Between 1999 and
2005 over 1,000 U.S. citizens arrived to the MLK Center with Witness for Peace
to meet Cubans to learn about their culture, history and daily life—including
the crippling effects of the U.S. imposed embargo. Delegates shared about their lives, challenges,
hopes and culture in the U.S.

When the Bush administration limited People to
People travel in 2005, Witness for Peace and the MLK Center, along with other
groups were forced to drastically reduce or end their work to bring Cubans and

Americans together. One of the fulfilled hopes of
the first Obama administration was easing travel restrictions on Cuban
Americans and reinstating People to People travel. This has allowed thousands
of people to reunite with their families and visit Cuba for the first time to
learn firsthand. Once again this type of travel could be in jeopardy because of
politics.

Over the next couple weeks Witness for Peace has
invited our partners from the MLK Center in Cuba and returned delegates to
share some of their experiences and reflections on their People-to-People experiences. Keep reading for new blogs on Cuba!

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Witness for Peace is a politically independent grassroots organization committed to nonviolence and led by faith and conscience. Witness for Peace's mission is to support peace, justice, and sustainable economies by changing the policies and practices which contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean.